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The U.S. Government, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), launched a new project that will help make the health systems of Pacific Island communities more adaptive to climate change. Through its Pacific-American Climate Fund (PACAM), USAID awarded a US $250,000 grant to the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International (FSPI). FSPI will implement the Mainstreaming Indigenous and Local Knowledge into Human Health Responses to Climate Change project with USAID support. This project will help the peoples of Tuvalu and Solomon Islands use local and indigenous knowledge to inform policies and scale up successful initiatives. This will contribute to building climate resilient health systems in the long term.

A vast proportion of the world’s shipping passes through Pacific waters, making the Pacific Islands central to global security and the global economy. They are also on the front lines of a number of global challenges, in particular climate change and natural disasters.

U.S. Ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, Hon. Catherine Ebert-Gray, and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director for the Philippines, Pacific Islands, and Mongolia, Dr. Susan Brems, visited Bougainville on August 22-23, 2016 to meet with partners of ongoing U.S. Government support in the region.

An alarmingly high prevalence of HIV in certain populations of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is impacting the nation’s ability to advance its economy and allow for lasting prosperity. In response to these issues, USAID is working to increase access to quality HIV prevention, care, and treatment services and mitigate the impact of the disease on these populations, their sexual partners, and their families.

To reduce the vulnerability of food security to the impacts of climate change, USAID and GIZ work with local communities to help establish nurseries that will supply tree species needed to implement forestry and agroforestry activities.